Excerpted from an AFT press release:

Reflecting its longtime commitment to international human rights and democracy, the delegates at the AFT convention this week heard an inspirational message from one of the Chinese labor leaders of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protest and today passed a resolution urging union members around the world to support Chinese workers who are struggling every day to increase human and workers' rights in their country....

Speaking passionately in English, Han told more than 3,000 AFT delegates that “the independent trade union movement offers hope to workers in China.  Right now, because of the Chinese government's violations of workers' rights and trade, our unions are in darkness.  But there is light at the end of the tunnel. It is a tough fight, but not an impossible one. This is our work. This is our mission.”
 
In response to Han's moving speech, AFT delegates passed a resolution calling the AFT, in cooperation with the AFL-CIO, to pressure the Chinese government to free imprisoned labor and human rights activists and extend basic human rights to all Chinese citizens.  The AFT reiterated its policy of non-contact and non-cooperation with the government-controlled All China Federation of Trade Unions (ACFTU).

Posted by John at 10:24 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

This blog isn't the only online source for AFT convention news.  The AFT's very able editorial department has wall-to-wall coverage.

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While AFT convention delegates discuss a rules change, I'll take the opportunity to catch up with yesterday's goings-on.

Sorry, Mr. McElroy.  Your speech yesterday was great, but a young woman from the Boston metro area really wowed the crowd with her speech. 

Denise Carriere, a local Special Olympian, spoke to the convention yesterday, telling her story and thanking the AFT for forming a partnership with the Special Olympics. When Denise was a newborn, she was diagnosed with meningitis. Denise's mother was told Denise would never see, hear, walk or talk.  Those doctors were wrong.  Denise is a wonderful inspirational speaker and has been nominated for Massachusetts' Special Olympics Hall of Fame.

Posted by John at 02:32 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

So, I had my first "brush with greatness" at AFT Convention, got to meet David Sirota of Sirotablog, who gave the Jim McGarvey lecture at the AFT Public Employee Breakfast this morning.  (He politiely said, "I think I've seen your blog.")  Sirota is also the author of Hostile Takeover, his book on political corruption in Washington, and kicks butt as a debater--checkout his smackdown of John Stossel over the minimum wage on CNBC.

Sirota gave a populist stump speech--no, I don't think he's running for office--that, not surprisingly, went over well with the crowd.  he talked about how we need to fight the "hostile takeover" of corporate interests by "harnessing the public's outrage" and organizing and educating ordinary citizens.  Sirota convincingly argued that unions are subject to vicious attacks because they are "one of the last frontlines fighting this hostile takeover."

Fun Fact: Despite what you might think after reading today's USA Today piece, the ratio of corporate to union contributions made to lawmakers--15:1

Fun Metaphors: Dick Cheney railing against lawsuits is like Wilt Chamberlain talking about abstinence. (Haliburton filed over 150 civil lawsuits under Cheney's reign.)

Posted by Michele at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

President Edward J. McElroy delivered the keynote address at AFT's biennial convention today.  The speech's "Count Me In" theme called for greater political and union activism. 

Here are a few K-12 education-related excerpts:

No Child Left Behind has proven to be—at best—a tremendous missed opportunity and—at worst—a cynical attempt to undermine public education.

Our members and leaders still stand for high standards and accountability, but the law in its current form falls short of these goals.  No Child Left Behind sets arbitrary benchmarks, yet the measuring formula that is the centerpiece of the law does not even measure progress toward those benchmarks.  NCLB is making a well-rounded education a thing of the past, because students and teachers are being forced to focus so much of their instructional time on math and reading—to the exclusion of other important subjects.

From the beginning, the AFT has worked to improve this law.  We have been able to get a number of significant changes made to NCLB, but this is not anywhere near enough.  We have given this law a four-year test—and NCLB is not making the grade. 

Public school teachers and staff want their students to succeed.  They want to do their job well.  The AFT and our affiliates have a history of advancing effective reforms that strengthen student achievement.  We cannot allow a law with so many flaws to derail the work that offers the best hope for reaching that goal.  The problem is that NCLB is the law of the land and it’s not going away.  The only solution is to change those responsible for making the laws and then get the laws changed.  And we’re going to do that—starting with this fall’s elections.

UPDATE: For another take on the convention, see Mike Antonucci's write-up.  In Antonucci's world, it's a gotcha moment whenever a public school advocate uses the word "choice," there's no such thing as a good speech by a union leader, unions play verbal games to disguise the fact that we're out to get all those non-union teachers who make more money than union teachers, the president of our Massachusetts affiliate offended New Yorkers (in fact he welcomed Yankee fans in the sentence after Antonucci's quote of the day), and resolutions that may never get voted on are all important.  (Also, though he is proud of his Jesuit schooling, "who" and "whom" seem to be interchangeable in Antonucci's world.)

Posted by John at 05:10 PM | Permalink | Comments (2)

From Boston, where AFT's biennial convention begins tomorrow.

If you've ever made the mistake -- I have (once) -- of clicking on the Fordham Foundation's podcast, you can make up for it by tuning in the only weekly labor podcast in America: AFT Connecticut's "Listen to This.

The podcasts, produced by Eric Bailey, are entertaining, innovative, informative and available via iTunes. (That's just my opinion.  No word yet whether Michele, who joined Eric and Edwizeguy Bill Stamatis on a techno-union-communications panel today at a gathering of AFT communicators, will substitute Eric's podcasts for her usual Pink Floyd once a week.)

The current podcast covers a living wage campaign and the Kentucky River case now before the National Labor Relations Board, and Eric plans to podcast from the AFT convention.  Michele and I will use that old, boring technology -- blogging -- to cover the goings-on here in Boston.

Posted by John at 07:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)